Commission enacts emergency declaration

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The Payne County Commissioners Thursday approved an emergency declaration for the county due to the recent winter weather.

District 1 Commissioner Zach Cavett said the declaration allows the county to obtain funding for road damages caused by back-to-back snowstorms.

“We enacted a declaration so we would be able to obtain funding through FEMA for our road damages and plowing snow,” he said.

The Commissioners also approved an interlocal agreement between Payne County and the City of Perkins for dispatch services, and a funding agreement for a bridge project over Council Creek on 19th Street east of Ingalls.

Cavett said the funding agreement allows the Oklahoma Department of Transportation to engage with the project engineer using County Improvements for Roads and Bridges (CIRB) Funds.

This state funded program through ODOT provides funding for construction or reconstruction of county roads or bridges on the county highway system that are of the highest priority as defined by the Transportation Commission. The program consists of state apportionments from the Motor Vehicle Collection Tax of $120 million per state fiscal year.